A leading gang expert says we need to get smarter and more sophisticated in tackling gang crime in New Zealand by looking at the factors that contribute to people joining.
University of Canterbury senior lecturer Jarrod Gilbert, who is also the author of Patched, talked about the issue of gang crime following months of unrest, turf wars and middle-of-the-street shootings.
Dr Gilbert said the public had every right to be concerned about the incidents, but added that "how we deal with that is incredibly important".
"There has been a truce in Taradale [the town near Napier where tensions had been raised] in the last day or two, which is a good thing. That incident will be long forgotten, but the consequences of it politically and through the laws that we create can have a far longer affect.
"We do have to have fairly calm heads here and look at it as rationally as possible, as difficult as that is sometimes, and when guns are being fired it is difficult."
Dr Gilbert credited Eastern District superintendent Tania Kura, who he said spoke in "incredibly intelligent" and "mature" ways.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush says police are committed to reducing harm.
"The police...have an incredibly important role to play, an absolutely vital role to play. When these incidents spike up we've got to have the police go in there and we've got to have them go in hard and blanket police those gangs so they know precisely the consequences of their actions. But as superintendent Kura said, the response to the gangs must be broader than that.
"It can't be left to just a law and order issue for police to solve. They can solve the acute issues, they can't solve the chronic issues."
Dr Gilbert said it wasn't only National pushing the 'tough on crime' front. He said it was a Government vs Opposition tactic, and in the same position Labour would be pushing the approach as well.
But he said the issue was what is driving gangs because gangs were "symptoms of wider problems".
A shooting during a brawl in Tardale on Sunday is the latest to have put the public on edge.
"We don't see gangs forming in nice middle-class suburbs where people have had a fine upbringing and good education and good schools. We don't see those gangs. We see them come from particular communities, and those communities are ravaged undeniably with hardship.
"The gangs are a consequence of those social and economic issues. Now we have to acknowledge that at least."
Dr Gilbert said the same approach to general crime needed to be taken with gangs.
"For a long time we said, 'Just lock them up,' and I just think in recent times we're starting to get a little bit smarter about that and think about crime and its causes in slightly more sophisticated ways. We need to do exactly the same thing with the gangs."
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